The pet rock was a fad in the mid 1970s created by ad executive Gary Dahl. The concept was a hit for a few years, making Mr. Dahl millions of dollars before it died out. Pet rocks can be found occasionally on eBay, but they are no longer “manufactured” or sold. The pet rock was a flash in the pan fad. I imagine many of you have never even heard of the pet rock. Conversely…
The Rubik’s Cube is celebrating its 30 year anniversary. It was patented in 1975 in Hungary as the Magic Cube (the same year the Pet Rock came out). In 1980, it was exported to the US and renamed the Rubik’s Cube. Since 1980, more than 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold. It is the best selling puzzle game of all time. It clearly has longevity as interest has spanned multiple generations.
So what about professional gaming? Is it a pet rock-like fad, or a Rubik’s Cube like phenomenon with staying power. Thirty years from now, will people sit down and watch the equivalent of Starcraft matches like they watch football or baseball today? Will schools have gaming teams? Will colleges offer scholarships for people to PLAY games? Will there be a market for hundreds, or even thousands of professional gamers to make their entire living just by competing in gaming tournaments?
And for those of you who think the answer to some or all of those questions is yes, perhaps you want to learn how to become a professional gamer. Get training!




League of Legends is an MMO RPG/RTS inspired by the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients (DotA). It also includes RPG elements in the form of a summoner character that gains levels, trains “abilities” called masteries, and gears up with runes.
I recently published an interview with Andrew Cowan, founder and administrator of The Mud Connector. If you are not familiar with TMC, it is one of the most important web sites in MUD/MMORPG history. It was the first major MUD search engine/community web site. It helped millions of gamers find an online home.
I just learned of this and it is sad news. Near Death Studios, the indie game company behind the resurrection of Meridian 59, closed down on December 31, 2009. One of the founders of Near Death Studios (Brian “Psychochild” Green) is a respected colleague and frequent reader of this blog. Brian announced the closing publicly
League of Legends is a game based on the Defense of the Ancients map for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. It is a competitive, player-vs-player, RTS-RPG-MMO hybrid.
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